HONG KONG/BEIJING — For SoftBank Group Inc, financial technology firm OneConnect's IPO should have been a vindication of an aggressive China investing strategy. Instead, embarrassed bankers had to slash the offering size and cut its price as investors baulked at a business model seen too reliant on majority owner Ping An Insurance. OneConnect Financial Technology is just one of many China bets placed by the Japanese investment giant or its massive Vision fund which have run into trouble. In ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance Co Ltd's 2017 IPO, for example, SoftBank ploughed in $550 million as a cornerstone investor. But the deal was seen by some investors as way overvalued and now trades at about half its IPO price.

Source: International New York Times December 13, 2019 20:08 UTC